But by the time he got outside, it was too late. The tree in front of his property, the one that was growing toward the utility wires, had been butchered as the tree trimmers carelessly gutted the otherwise healthy trees on his street.

“They did it in a way that shows total disregard for the trees,” said Swoyer, who also saw part of a private tree on land he owns on Spruce Street haphazardly pruned. “When a tree goes like that, I don’t know if it can come back.”

The tree-pruning problem is widespread. Ruth Thomasian, the president of Trees for Watertown, said School, Maplewood and Spring streets have been hit by what some neighbors are calling the “tree butchers.”

“They’re taking out the heart of our trees,” Thomasian said.

The culprits are typically subcontractors hired by utility company NSTAR, and Tree Warden Chris Hayward said the inconsiderate tree-cutting isn’t unusual.

“I have had many battles with NSTAR in my five years of working for Watertown because of this type of work,” Hayward said in an e-mail last week.

NSTAR did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Watertown Community Access Television

See Ruth's comments at the June 22 Town Council meeting at the 1:36-minute mark.

Joel Hencken, a Lincoln Street resident, was moved to write a letter to one of the subcontractors after he saw three 50-year-old maples “hacked” on Mt. Auburn Street.

“I’m terrified you are going to ruin the beautiful street I live on, which has wires that go through intact trees without any problems in storms,” Hencken wrote. “I now live in dread that I’ll come home from work and see my street ruined.”

“With the recent focus on community economic development by the town, one would think that that one might want to identify and catalogue the town’s assets, and I would think that this would include both the river and the greenery (i.e., what we have left),” Kopp wrote in an e-mail to the TAB & Press.

Thomasian is leading a campaign to lodge complaints with NSTAR about the tree treatment.

“We’ve seen this before, but it has never before been this blatant,” she said. “We don’t see this going on in other towns.”

Thomasian also said she has spoken to state Rep. Jonathan Hecht about possibly introducing legislation that would place regulations on tree pruning.

“NSTAR is in town, cutting out the heart of our trees, and we will not allow it,” she said.

Have your street’s trees been hacked?

Call the NSTAR Customer Complaint line at 800-592-2000 during normal business hours, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.